Multi-professional consultation at multi-professional healthcare centres. Varied practices and local strategies

Multi-professional healthcare centres (Maisons de sante pluriprofessionnelles - MSP) were created with the purpose of developing inter-professional practices in primary care. Financial support for MSP, provided since 2017 through an interprofessional agreement (Accord conventionnel interprofessionnel - ACI) requires teams to account for their activities, in particular multi-professional consultation (concertation pluriprofessionnelle - CPP), of which the nature and forms in primary care remain largely unknown. This article presents the approach of a multidisciplinary research project called Concert-MSP currently underway to analyse in depth the multi-professional consultation developed by teams at MSP. Then, based on the results of the project’s exploratory survey at six MSP, it illustrates the diversity both of practices labelled as CPP by the teams and of their valorization strategies. The article furthermore analyses how the particularity of primary care makes it necessary to reconsider the concept of multi-professional consultation. The variety of practices reveals the novelty of establishing this collaboration, an intention to adapt to the local context, and the wish to progressively lead health professionals towards a change in practices. The implementation of this CPP requires the place of the various primary care actors and the coordination mechanisms in place within MSP teams to be rethought.